Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA) Stock Sinks As Market Gains: What You Should Know

In the latest trading session, Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA) closed at $48.23, marking a -0.14% move from the previous day. This change lagged the S&P 500's 2.07% gain on the day. At the same time, the Dow added 1.4%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 0.49%.

Coming into today, shares of the largest U.S. drugstore chain had lost 3.21% in the past month. In that same time, the Retail-Wholesale sector lost 4.8%, while the S&P 500 lost 2.08%.

Wall Street will be looking for positivity from Walgreens Boots Alliance as it approaches its next earnings report date. On that day, Walgreens Boots Alliance is projected to report earnings of $1.22 per share, which would represent no growth from the year-ago period. Our most recent consensus estimate is calling for quarterly revenue of $32.93 billion, down 9.31% from the year-ago period.

WBA's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $4.92 per share and revenue of $131.38 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of -7.34% and -4.37%, respectively.

It is also important to note the recent changes to analyst estimates for Walgreens Boots Alliance. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the company's business outlook.

Based on our research, we believe these estimate revisions are directly related to near-team stock moves. Investors can capitalize on this by using the Zacks Rank. This model considers these estimate changes and provides a simple, actionable rating system.

The Zacks Rank system ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell). It has a remarkable, outside-audited track record of success, with #1 stocks delivering an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.72% lower. Walgreens Boots Alliance is currently a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell).

Investors should also note Walgreens Boots Alliance's current valuation metrics, including its Forward P/E ratio of 9.82. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 9.82, which means Walgreens Boots Alliance is trading at a no noticeable deviation to the group.

Meanwhile, WBA's PEG ratio is currently 2.22. The PEG ratio is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but this metric also takes the company's expected earnings growth rate into account. Retail - Pharmacies and Drug Stores stocks are, on average, holding a PEG ratio of 1.98 based on yesterday's closing prices.

The Retail - Pharmacies and Drug Stores industry is part of the Retail-Wholesale sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 200, putting it in the bottom 22% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

Be sure to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and many more, on Zacks.com.

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